28 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 64., Jan. 10. '57. 



.-uid other necessaries, and that they p'vide themselves of 

 knapsacks w*'» p'porcon of Victuall for x days. 



9. " That you p'vide for everj' Muskatier w'thin youre 

 Hundred 3 pounds of Powder; 3 pounds of Ledd to make 

 bulletts and 3 pounds of Match, to bee raysed by Tythinge 

 rates w'thin youre Hundred; and beinge so p'vided to 

 keepe it safelie by yow till further order bee given unto 

 you by some Deputie Lieutenant. 



10. " That you repayre to all the Markett Townes w'thin 

 youre Hundred, and theire apointe the Cheefe Inkeeper to 

 bee alwaies furnished and p'vided of Poste Horses for his 

 Mat's Service to bee imployed at the Kings price, vf^^ is 

 ij<i each mile. 



11. " That you seeke and inquire dyligentlie what spare 

 armes are in your Hundred beside those -W^^ belonge to 

 the Trayned Bands, of kinde and in whose hands they 

 are. 



12. " That in case any adv'tsement eyther by fireing 

 the Beacons or otherwyse "of the aproache of the enemy 

 bee given, — j'ou cause such stronge and suflFycient 

 Watchers both of Horse and foote to bee sett and con- 

 tinued in all fitt places as shall be necessarie. 



" And that you returne an account unto the next 

 Deputie Lieutenant what you have done herein 

 on the fowerth daye of August nexte. 

 x<i 

 " From Welles v« xx* daye ") 

 of Julye 1626. | 



*' 3rd Augt, 1626. 



" The Names of those as are apoynted to p'vide Armor 

 for His Maty's Service; — as Corsletts, Pykes, Sworde, 

 Dagger, and Hedd peeee forthw*'' : 



TTo furnish a man, w* Cors- 

 " Mr. Ezekiel Barkham, < lett. Munition as above 

 (. said. 



Mr. Jordan Bisse - - - The like. 



Mr. Thos. James - - - The like. 



Jo. Smith ) 



Rob. Smith j " 



Phil. Coles \ 



Wm. West S ' ' ' 



Tho Harvey > ... The like. 



Jo. Horles } 



irh;:ypSle} - - - The like. 

 Mrs. Honor Owen - - . The like." 



Ina. 



Wells, Somerset. 



The like. 

 The like. 



Authenticity of Ossiaris Poems. — Having lately 

 fallen in with the following newspaper cutting, I 

 think the same is deserving of a niche in the pre- 

 servative columns of " N. & Q." 



" The following declaration by Mr, Becket, bookseller 

 in London, impeaching the veracity of Dr. Johnson, in 

 regard to his assertion about the authenticity of Ossian's 

 Poems, appeared lately in the English papers : 



'To the PUBLIC. 

 ' DocTOK Johnson having asserted, in his late publica- 

 tion, that the Translator of Ossian's Poems " never 

 could show the original, nor can it he shown by any 

 other ; " I hereby declare, that the originals of Fingul and 

 other poems of Ossian lay in my shop for many months 

 in the year 1762, for the inspection of the curious. The 

 public were not only apprised of their lying there for in- 



spection, but even proposals for publishing the originals 

 of the poems of Ossian were dispersed through the king- 

 dom, and advertised in the newspapers. Upon finding 

 that a number of subscribers, sufficient to bear the ex- 

 penses, were not likely to appear, I returned the manuscript 

 to the proprietor, in whose hands they still remain. 



• Thos. Becket. 

 « Adelphi, Jan. 19, 1775.'" 



John Thomas. 



Linlithgow. 



" Reliable." — This incorrect word is fast gain- 

 ing ground, and unless protested against, it will 

 soon find its way into dictionaries, and become 

 recognised English. Thus is our mother tongue 

 weakened and abused ! I think many readers of 

 " N. & Q." will thank you for the insertion of the 

 following remarks : 



" The Word ' Reliable.' — Will any of your philological 

 readers give a satisfactory authority for the use of this 

 word ? It is, as far as I know, quite a recent intruder 

 into our language ; and before it wholly succeeds in dis- 

 placing the old Saxon ' trust -worthy,' perhaps it will be 

 worth while to examine its pretensions. Eveiy one 

 knows that words terminating in ble or bilis, whether 

 Saxon or Latin, have a passive meaning. There is no 

 need to refer to Home Tooke and his theory of ' Potential 

 Passive Adjectives ' to prove this. A superficial glance 

 at such words as readable, commendable, visible, &c., will 

 suffice. Every such word is, of course, derived ultimately 

 from an active or transitive verb. To form a word having 

 this termination, on the basis of a neuter or intransitive 

 verb, such as the verb to rely, is, I think, quite unpre- 

 cedented, and in defiance of all analogy. We are familiar 

 with audible, able to be heard; ponderable, able to be 

 weighed ; desirable, worthy to be desired ; and even with 

 Carlyle's euphuism doable, able to be done. But if reliable 

 is to mean, ' able to be relied on,' why may we not have 

 dependable, go-able, run-able, rise-able, fall-able, and much 

 similar jargon besides? If you can nnd room for a pro- 

 test against the use of this word, it may perhaps be of a 

 little service. The introduction into current speech of a 

 slovenly or illegitimate word is a national nuisance. — 

 AlpHiV." — Athenceum, Sept. 20, 1856. 



" These loose observations are the result of a train of 

 Uiought suggested by a word, which, having sprung up 

 (I think) within the last ten years, is now found in nearly 

 every review and newspaper — I mean the word reliable. 

 Reliable evidence, reliable information, and similar phrases, 

 abound everywhere ; but the absurdity of the expression, 

 by whomsoever invented, to say nothing of our having 

 already the nervous old word trustworthy, and its synonym 

 credible, is a sufficient reason for its immediate rejection. 

 To rely is a verb neuter, and cannot precede an accusative 

 without the intervention of the preposition on or iipon ; to 

 make it equivalent to trust this preposition is indispens- 

 able, and therefore if the new word be anything at all, it 

 is not reliable, but relionable ! " — Contributions to Litera- 

 ture (London, 1854), p. 278. 



Makk Antony Lowek. 



Lewes. 



MS. Note on Sulpitius Severus. — In an Elzevir 

 copy of Sulpitius Severus, which I possess, is the 

 following smart stricture, written on the flyleaf : 



" Sulpitius seems to have set a high price upon affected 

 (sic), uncommanded, absurd austerities ; atid to have looked 

 upon Pilgrimages^ going barefoot, Hair-shirts, with whips, 



